Published: August 19, 2008 10:17 am         

Despite logic, Bayh still in veep running

In spite of conventional logic, Evan Bayh remains a potential vice presidential candidate.

Indiana’s junior senator supported Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Democratic primary battle, but perhaps this is now seen as positive. Naming a Clinton backer would help heal the rift in the Democratic Party.

Barack Obama keeps appearing in Indiana, even though a majority of Hoosiers haven’t voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since Lyndon Johnson in 1964.

Selecting Bayh would surely help Indiana pick Obama. Bayh would be the second surprising Indiana vice presidential candidate, ever since Dan Quayle’s selection by George H.W. Bush shocked many politicians and voters.

In fact, it would be as amazing as Quayle’s first Senate victory, when as a 33-year-old he defeated Evan’s father Birch, a three-term incumbent.

It doesn’t seem logical from a geographical perspective that Obama would pick Bayh as vice president. Putting two Midwesterners on the ticket seems a bit limiting for the Democrats.

But stranger things have happened. Certainly Bayh has the credentials of being a centrist governor and a member of the Senate Armed Services and Intelligence committees, important to enhance the ticket’s foreign policy credentials.

Bayh has the classic good looks important to televised politics, although he is not nearly as dynamic a speaker as Obama. But then again, he wouldn’t overshadow the presidential candidate.

Bayh was criticized as being too reliant on the polls during his governance of Indiana. However, he did outmaneuver state Republicans on fiscal issues to become the Democrat who opposed tax increases and excessive spending.

Goshen-area residents remember Bayh’s integrity in which he oversaw a recount of a 1986 congressional race. Republican John Hiler was declared the winner by 47 votes, a margin so slim that Bayh conceivably could have manipulated the total to allow the Democrat to take office.

It will be interesting to see how the chips fall in the vice presidential selection process. Perhaps Hoosiers will have a native son on the ticket.